They were being dealt with on a multi- agency basis and his medication had since been changed to try to ensure that he did not act so impulsively.

"We have to accept that it would have caused major disruption of the emergency services but when he made the call he didn’t realise the implications it would have," he said.

Chairman David Harrison told him: "You did not realise the consequences of what you did but a lot of people were inconvenienced by your actions, and people who genuinely needed the emergency services might have been deprived of them.

"You must think before you do these things," he added.

Yesterday, coastguard Ray Carson said: "While crews were out dealing with this hoax call, a real emergency could be taking place.

"Diverting emergency services like this has serious implications – it is dangerous and very costly.

"Luckily new technology allows us to trace fake callers and in most cases we can tell whether or not they are real emergencies."

A RNLI spokeswoman added: "The Rhyl inshore RNLI lifeboat was launched at 21.10 on December 22, following reports of a swimmer missing close to the Sun Centre in Rhyl.

"The all-weather RNLI lifeboat then launched at 21.15 to assist with a search of the area."

She added: "Hoax calls not only endanger the lives of our volunteer lifeboat crews, but they also tie up valuable lifesaving resources which could place those in genuine need of help in worse danger. Operations of this nature waste the funds of the RNLI, a charity that relies on donations and legacies, as well as the time and money of other agencies involved in search and rescue at sea.

"On top of this there is a considerable impact on the personal lives of our volunteers, who are called away from work or family commitments to attend incidents of this nature.

"This has a knock on effect both on employers, who have to manage the absence of a staff member, and families, who have their leisure time interrupted."